Friday, June 17, 2016

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday! Even though Noah had his last day of school last week, it still doesn't feel like summer yet because he was in VBS all this week. Noah was probably a little confused, because while it's "camp", it's at his school, in his classroom, and with all his school friends! But starting Monday, we officially begin our summer with no school, swim lessons, or soccer. While I'm all for taking it easy in the summer, I do plan on creating a flexible routine to give our days a little bit of structure. But don't worry, it's basically going to be planning a lot of fun activities to do every day. But enough about our grand plans for the summer, we first need to spend this weekend celebrating the fathers in our life. In addition to making Chris feel special and loved, we will be spending some time with my dad and Chris' dad. It should be a really great weekend!

So while I wait for our weekend to begin, I figured I'd share some things that we have been absolutely loving recently. From our favorite activities to some recent purchases that we are pretty obsessed with.

One

For Noah's last day of school, we gave him a new Lego Junior set. While he still plays with his Duplos, he's slowly beginning to get some Junior sets and really enjoys building them (with our help). This is the second set we've done and I've already seen him more interested in following the instructions and putting the pieces together himself. While they are definitely more complicated than the Duplo sets, Noah's doing amazingly well considering. This construction set is really cool because it has a few options of what you can build AND it has a wrecking ball... which was Noah's favorite part, hands down!

In addition to finishing school last week, Noah also had his last soccer class. He has a certificate to show for it and everything ;) Even though he won't have an organized class to go to this summer, we plan to keep his skills up by playing a lot in our yard. Chris' parents got Noah this soccer ball and we use this soccer net. Last week my parents were over and it was so cute watching them play soccer with Noah!

Three

While we've been doing the Home Depot Kids Workshops for a while, last weekend was the first time we went to the Lowe's Build and Grow. We were excited to try it out because they are doing a superhero themed summer and the first one was building a Captain America! We had so much fun that we've already signed up for the next one... Iron Man! If you are interested in these, be prepared that these fill up fast! Home Depot seems to be more casual and allow for walk ins, while Lowes fills up within days of pre-registration being offered online!

You can tell I'm getting older because I'm seriously excited for this new vacuum I got! When we were down at the beach, they had this vacuum and used it all the time to clean up the sand and crumbs that seemed to be never-ending. When I asked about it, my friend raved about not only the vacuum, but the hand held blower too. She advised me to get the two, but only buy one with the battery. That way you save some money and can swap out the battery between the two devices. So far I'm in love with both, and have used the vacuum on a daily basis. It's perfect for those quick cleanups when you don't want to lug out the big vacuum!

If you are a regular reader, you know that Noah is a huge Octonauts fan. While we have almost every Gup made, we were missing the classic Octopod. This is the large ship that they live and sail around on. While Octonauts is still on TV, it seems that they are not actively making all the toys. So this Octopod isn't easy to get and when it is offered, the price is extremely marked up. A toy that should cost around $30 is being offered on Amazon and EBay for almost $70. And since we had no intention of paying that price, we figured Noah wouldn't get one. But then a friend suggested I reach out on our town's FB selling page, and right away I had someone message me that they had one they'd sell to me. So yesterday I picked up a gently used Octopod for only $15! When Noah got home from camp and saw it set up in the living room, he was so excited! He kept randomly coming over to me, saying "thank you mama, I love it" and giving me hugs. His genuine appreciation almost made me tear up!

9 comments:

I posted about vacuums today too! I'm intrigued with yours though. We just got a cordless Dyson for $269 and it's good, but not great. Maybe we should get yours instead! Does it pick up all the crumbs???

You know how the Octonauts are based on a book series? The other day a set of four, hardcover really nice ones showed up at out thrift shop. I haven't given them to Reed yet, but I know he'll love them. Congrats on your Octopod :)

We've been missing the Lowe's Build and Grows SO MUCH. Mason's been doing his ABA school on Saturday mornings and since he is busy, I forget to sign him up anyway to get them and bring them home. I used to look forward to those Saturdays where we would go and build. Such a bummer. I need to see when the next one is here! I'm glad you guys enjoyed it!

So funny, we built that Captain America too! I love that they do the series of characters. Myles is really excited for Ironman next, his favorite! I love Noah building those Legos. What do you guys do with the pieces? Do you just keep the sets together? Or keep the pieces in a bin or something?

So many fun things. We have always loved the Legos juniors kits. Emily has had a few but recently transitioned to the regular ones. I bet Noah will before you know it too! That vacuum looks pretty fantastic. No shame being excited about that. I hope you have a great first week of summer!